Lifetime interview with Clinton to show ‘softer’ side

On the campaign trail in frigid Iowa, Hillary Clinton has been ramping up her tough political attacks on Bernie Sanders. But she is also continuing to execute a secondary strategy of showing off a softer side.

In an new interview with British television host Amanda de Cadenet set to air Wednesday night on Lifetime’s “The Conversation,” the Democratic frontrunner puts politics aside for an hour-long gabfest in which she discusses date night with Bill Clinton, girls night out with her friends, as well as figuring out how much emotion to show as a woman candidate for president. The interview also includes an ethnically diverse panel of female YouTube stars hand-selected by de Cadenet to interview Clinton about women’s issues that resonate with the show’s 18-34female demographic.

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“How do you process all the emotion coming at you?” de Cadenet asks Clinton in a clip the television host shared with POLITICO.

“It’s a really, really smart question,” Clinton responds. “Here is my dilemma. Maybe you can give me some advice here. It’s really important not to wall yourself off from how you are actually feeling about what people say or how they treat you or how they treat somebody else that offends you or upsets you -- but you’re also as a woman in a high public position or seeking the presidency, as I am, you have to be aware of how people will judge you for being, quote, emotional. It’s a really delicate balancing act.”

In another teaser, Clinton is asked how she spends time with her female friends. “With my friends, going out, usually someone’s house so we’re not in the public eye, and just having a great time, telling stories, making fun of each other,” she says. “I was with a group of my friends at a big even the other night, we were dancing, and it was crazy. Oh my god, it was so much fun.”

Since launching her campaign last April, Clinton’s operatives have touted the former Secretary of State as the least-known well-known woman in the world. The campaign has tried to bridge some of the distance between Clinton’s stiff public image and the “real Hillary,” by sitting down for interviews with unconventional outlets like BuzzFeed’s “Another Round” podcast; actress Lena Dunham’s online newsletter, Lenny; and participating in a Facebook chat online with Telemundo. The unorthodox media strategy doubles as a way to engage younger voters with the campaign.

But even for a sympathetic interview, where the journalist says she is seeking to paint a humanizing portrait of her subject, press-averse Clinton is hard to pin down.

In an interview, de Cadenet -- a former actress and photographer who was once married to the bassist for Duran Duran and is now married to the guitarist for The Strokes -- said she put in her request for Clinton back in June after the campaign launched. She only heard back in December that her interview had been approved.

“I kept waiting for a sit-down with Diane Sawyer or Barbra Walters, I thought, where is the one-on-one sitdown?” de Cadenet told POLITICO. “I thought, I really wish someone would sit with her and find out who this woman is -- what does she do on date night, does she change diapers, who are her girlfriends. I wanted to give Secretary Clinton a space to be who she is. This is my opportunity.”

De Cadenet’s show, produced by Demi Moore, is best known for delving into personal issues like body image, aging, marriage and relationships with celebrities like Connie Britton, Rita Wilson and even Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

"This has been the most involved interview to secure," said de Cadenet. "There’s a big approval process. On Dec. 15, I got an email from her camp saying, you’re interview has been cleared. They said I could do Dec. 21 or sometime in March.”

What Hillary Clinton's 'girls night out' looks like

An excerpt of Hillary Clinton's interview on 'The Conversation with Amanda de Cadenet.'

De Cadenet said she secured a location for her set in New York City. But the day before the interview, the place did not clear Secret Service guidelines and the campaign told her that Clinton needed to be at her campaign’s Brooklyn headquarters all day and the shoot would have to move there.

To make it work, de Cadenet rebuilt her feminine, cozy set -- she often curls up, shoeless, on a plush couch opposite her guest -- at the campaign’s Brooklyn headquarters.

She built her set replica on the empty tenth floor of the campaign's headquarters -- extra space the campaign plans to grow into as it expands over the coming year. “I went to a furniture store and rented the artwork, the sofa, the rug on the floor, and I brought it over to the headquarters,” she said. “I was carrying pillows and flowers in. When [Clinton] came in, the first thing she said was, ‘where did you get peonies this time of year!' I love this room, can you leave everything here.’”

In the interview, she said Clinton opens up about mistakes she has made over her career. “There’s no way you can have a career for 40 years and made all the right choices,” de Cadenet said. “We talked about that, making mistakes, and saying, ‘I made a mistake and I’m human.’”

De Cadenet said she was impressed with Clinton’s warmth and how grounded she seemed-- but she said the disconnect that people feel can often “come from people with a ton of handlers. You become removed from reality just because of the layers of people. If they let her, I think she’d be doing her groceries and going to Starbucks.”

De Cadenet said there she was “not allowed to ask her, but I wanted to know if she sneaks out on the Secret Service. I bet you she does. She could never answer that, but I bet you she does.”